Army holds first voluntary marksmanship program

• By Jonathan Chin / Staff writer, with CNA

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The army’s first voluntary live-fire shooting program for reservists, with newly relaxed eligibility rules, took place in Taichung on Monday, allowing those who were discharged more than a decade ago to refresh their combat skills with T91 assault rifles.

The Taichung Reserve Command held the exercise amid Taiwan’s efforts to incorporate reserve infantry brigades in its war plans.

The drill was among the first to be held after the Ministry of National Defense lifted a restriction limiting participation in marksmanship refresher training to soldiers who left the service less than 12 years ago.

A certificate of completion and a zeroing target are pictured following a voluntary rifle shooting training session in Taichung on Monday.

Photo: CNA

A reporter said 35 former service members took part in the target practice at Chenggong Ling (成功嶺) military training camp.

The participants included former draftees and retired professional soldiers, with many of the latter wearing their old helmets, uniforms, boots and other accoutrements.

Of the participants, 10 were former soldiers who had served more than 12 years ago, including one man whose service dated to two decades ago. Two were retired professional soldiers and some were former conscripts.

The reservists were required to hand over their mobile devices before donning current-issue helmets, body armor with ballistic plate inserts and T91 rifles.

The marksmanship exercise consisted of two parts — a virtual reality training component and a live-fire component — to ease them into weapons handling.

A command sergeant major of a Taichung-based reserve brigade walked the reservists through the design and handling of the unfamiliar rifles in the virtual reality training facility.

They simulated shooting in prone, half-kneel and standing positions for realistic training.

The senior non-commissioned officer supervised the live-fire component of the exercise, during which the reservists zeroed their rifles at 25m, then fired 30 rounds loaded in three magazines at a 175m silhouette target.

The reservists also fired three rounds each in the prone, half-kneel and standing positions behind a barricade at a 175m silhouette target.

Loading only a few rounds in each rifle magazine helped the trainee practice reloading magazines as they shoot, a military spokesperson said.

A new spotting scope enabled the instructor and trainee to observe hits and misses without inspecting the target up close, which would have taken more time than necessary, they said.

Casing catchers were installed on the rifles to protect instructors and trainees on the range, allowing them to focus on shooting instead of dodging hot empty shells, the spokesperson said.

A reservist in his late 40s said shooting a T91 “felt like entering in a new age,” as his issued weapons were the much older T57 and T65K.